Wednesday, 30 May 2018

Firmicute are a group of Bacteria which are not typically pathogenic, but which includes a few species such as Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes which can cause food poisoning or skin infections, as well as more dangerous species such as Clostridium perfringens (Gangrene) and Bacillus anthracis (Anthrax) which are normally soil-dwelling Bacteria, but which can cause lethal infections due to the toxins which they produce. Members of the genus Peptoniphilus are thought to be exclusively pathogenic, with fifteen described species, twelve of which are known only from infections in Humans and three from infections of Animals.

The new species is named Peptoniphilus lacydonensis, where 'lacydonensis' means 'from Marseille' (Lacydon is the ancient name for the city). The Bacteria Gram-positive, non–spore-forming and nonmotile cocci (spherical Bacteria), which grew in culture best at 37°C and a pH of 6.5 to 8.0. The Bacteria thrived in anaerobic (without oxygen) and microaerophilic (with very low levels of oxygen) conditions, but not under normal aerobic conditions.

A teenager was bitten by a Shark while bathing off Cocoa Beach in Brevard County, Florida, on Saturday 26 May 2018. Cody High, 15, from San Angelo, Texas, was bitten on the lower calf by a Bull Shark, Carcharhinus leucas, about two metres in length, slightly after 5.00 pm local time on a section of beach without lifeguards or Shark spotters. He underwent surgery at the Arnold Palmer Children's Hospital, where he was retained for several days after the incident. His family are attempting to cover the cost of his treatment via a GoFundMe Page.

Cody High, 15, from San Angelo, Texas, recovering in hospital after being bitten by a Bull Shark off Cocoa Beach, Florida, on 26 May 2018. The Man Post.

Despite their fearsome reputation,
attacks by Sharks
are relatively rare. Most attacks on Humans by Sharks are
thought to be mistakes, made by species that feed principally on Marine Mammals
(which we superficially resemble when we enter the water), gaining the
majority of their nutrition from the thick adipose (fat) layers of these
animals (which we lack). Due to this, when Sharks do attack Humans
these attacks are often broken off without the victim being consumed.
Such attacks frequently result in severe injuries, but are seldom
immediately fatal, with victims likely to survive if they receive
immediate medical attention.

Bull Sharks, Carcharhinus leucas, are a form of Requiem Shark, Carcharhinidae,
reaching about four metres in length at their largest. They have a
reputation for aggressive behaviour, and are one of the species most
prone to attacking Humans, though this is not because they are more
hostile towards us than other Shark species, but because they inhabit
environments where they are more likely to encounter us, favouring
shallow inshore waters, and sometimes entering freshwater systems, which
most Sharks shun (Bull Sharks have been encountered in the Mississippi
River as far inland as southern Illinois). These Sharks are also
territorial, and may lash out if they feel their territory is being
invaded.

Thousands of people have been evacuated from homes in North Carolina, after debris from a landslide hit the Lake Tahoma Dam in McDowell County, North Carolina, compromising the integrity of the structure, on Wednesday 30 May 2018. The evacuation order was issued after engineers inspected the dam and found water spilling around its sides, prompting fears of an imminent catastrophic failure. The landslide was one of several such events triggered by heavy rains in the area associated with Tropical Storm Alberto, which has caused the worst flooding in the area since 2004, when the area was hit by the combined effects of hurricanes Frances and Ivan.

The Lake Tahoma Dam in McDowell County, North Carolina. Joshua Moore/Getty Images.

Tropical
storms are caused by solar energy heating the air above the oceans,
which causes the air to rise leading to an inrush of air. If this
happens over a large enough area the inrushing air will start to
circulate, as the rotation of the Earth causes the winds closer to the
equator to move eastwards compared to those further away (the Coriolis
Effect). This leads to tropical storms rotating clockwise in the
southern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere.These
storms tend to grow in strength as they move across the ocean and lose
it as they pass over land (this is not completely true: many tropical
storms peter out without reaching land due to wider atmospheric
patterns), since the land tends to absorb solar energy while the sea
reflects it.

The
low pressure above tropical storms causes water to rise there by ~1 cm
for every millibar drop in pressure, leading to a storm surge that can
overwhelm low-lying coastal areas, while at the same time the heat leads
to high levels of evaporation from the sea - and subsequently high
levels of rainfall. This can cause additional flooding on land, as well
as landslides, which are are a common problem after severe weather
events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and
sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all
landslides are caused by heavy rainfall.

TheUnited States Geological Surveyrecorded
a Magnitude 5.2 Earthquake at a depth of 50.1 km beneath the island of Sumbawa, in the southern Lesser Sunda Islands, at about 2.25 am local time on Tuesday 29 May 2018 (about 7.26 pm on Monday 28 May GMT). Quakes at this depth are seldom dangerous, but are
often felt over a wide area, and this one was reportedly felt as far away as
Bali in the west.

The approximate location of the 29 May 2018 Sumbawa Earthquake (USGS).

The Lesser Sunda Islands are located on the northern part of the Timor
Microplate. This is trapped between the converging Eurasian and
Australian Plates, both of which are being subducted beneath it. In the
south the Australian Plate is passing under the island of Timor, with
material from the subducted plate melted by the friction and the heat of
the Earth's interior rising through the Timor Plate to feed the
volcanoes of the island. In the north the Eurasian Plate is being
subducted in the same way, feeding the volcanoes there.

Witness
accounts of Earthquakes can help geologists to understand these events,
and the structures that cause them. The international non-profit
organisation Earthquake Report is interested in hearing from people who may have felt this event; if you felt this quake then you can report it to Earthquake Report here.

Asteroid 2018 KW1 passed by the Earth at a distance of about 149 100
km (0.39 times the average distance between the Earth and the Moon, or 0.001% of the distance between the Earth and the Sun), slightly before midday
GMT on Tuesday 22 May 2018. There was no danger of
the asteroid hitting us, though were it to do so it would not have
presented a significant threat. 2018 KW1 has an estimated
equivalent
diameter of 2-6 m (i.e. it is estimated that a spherical object
with
the same volume would be 2-6 m in diameter), and an object of
this
size would be expected to explode in
an airburst (an explosion caused by superheating from friction with the
Earth's atmosphere, which is greater than that caused by simply
falling, due to the orbital momentum of the asteroid) in the atmosphere more than 40 km above the ground, with only fragmentary material
reaching the Earth's surface.

2018 KW1 was discovered on 22 May 2018 (the day of its closest approach to the Earth) by the
University of Arizona's Mt. Lemmon Survey at the Steward Observatory on Mount
Lemmon in the Catalina Mountains north of Tucson. The designation 2018 KW1
implies that the asteroid was the 47th object (object W1) discovered in the second half of May 2018 (period 2018 K).

2018 KW1 has an 631 day orbital period and an eccentric orbit
tilted at an angle of 7.54° to the plane of the Solar System, which
takes it from 0.99 AU from the Sun (i.e. 99% of he average distance at
which the Earth orbits the Sun) to 1.89 AU from the Sun (i.e. 189% of
the
average distance at which the Earth orbits the Sun, and further from the Sun than the planet Mars). It is therefore
classed as an
Apollo Group Asteroid (an asteroid that is on average further from the
Sun than the Earth, but which does get closer). This means that close
encounters between the asteroid and Earth are extremely common, with the
last having occurred in August 2011 and the next predicted
in April 2027.

Tuesday, 29 May 2018

Archosauromorphs, defined as everything more closely related to
Dinosaurs and Crocodiles than to Lepidosaurs (Lizards, Snakes and Sphenodon,
flourished in the aftermath of the End Permian Extinction, becoming the
dominant Vertebrates in most terrestrial ecosystems. They have suffered
heavily in each of the subsequent mass extinction events, particularly
the End Triassic and End Cretaceous, but each time recovered, with over
10 000 species still alive today (mostly Birds). Almost all post-Triassic Archosauromorphs belomg to three highly successful groups, the Testudines (Turtles and Tortoises), the Crocodylomorphs, and the Dinosaurs (including the Birds), however, in the Triassic a much more diverse range of these animals was present.

The new species is named Colobops noviportensis, where 'Colobops' means 'short-snout', and 'noviportensis' means 'from Newhaven'. The species is described from a nearly complete cranium and coronoid process of right mandible, lacking tooth-bearing portions of premaxillae, maxillae, palate, and mandible, preserved largely within a sandstone matrix and μCT scanned at the Laboratory of Integrative Science’s Center for Nanoscale Systems at Harvard University.

The skull of Colobops noviportensis is estimated to have been only 2.5 cm in length, providing a valuable insight into smaller Triassic Archosauromorphs, which are less well understood than their larger relatives. The precise affinities of Colobops noviportensis are uncertain, but it appears likely that it was a Rhynchosaur, an early group of Archosauromorphs closely related to the Archosauroformes, the group which includes Dinosaurs and Crocodylomorphs. This species was relatively short-snouted, and appears to have had a powerful bite.

Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in Bay County, Florida, on Monday 28 May 2018, bringing high winds and flooding to much of the southeastern United States. Two people are known to have died as a result of this storm, Mike McCormick and Aaron Smeltzer, journalists employed by television station WYFF who were killed when a falling tree struck their vehicle as they covered the storm in North Carolina.

Tropical
storms are caused by solar energy heating the air above the oceans,
which causes the air to rise leading to an inrush of air. If this
happens over a large enough area the inrushing air will start to
circulate, as the rotation of the Earth causes the winds closer to the
equator to move eastwards compared to those further away (the Coriolis
Effect). This leads to tropical storms rotating clockwise in the
southern hemisphere and anticlockwise in the northern hemisphere.These
storms tend to grow in strength as they move across the ocean and lose
it as they pass over land (this is not completely true: many tropical
storms peter out without reaching land due to wider atmospheric
patterns), since the land tends to absorb solar energy while the sea
reflects it.

The
low pressure above tropical storms causes water to rise there by ~1 cm
for every millibar drop in pressure, leading to a storm surge that can
overwhelm low-lying coastal areas, while at the same time the heat leads
to high levels of evaporation from the sea - and subsequently high
levels of rainfall. This can cause additional flooding on land, as well
as landslides, which are are a common problem after severe weather
events, as excess pore water pressure can overcome cohesion in soil and
sediments, allowing them to flow like liquids. Approximately 90% of all
landslides are caused by heavy rainfall.

About Me

Studied Palaeobiology & Evolution at the University of Portsmouth, Geosciences via the Open University & Ecology and Conservation at Christchurch University, Canterbury.
Have worked in wildlife based tourism, mineral exploration, development, conservation, education & environmental chemistry. Occasionally write articles for papers and magazines.

This Blog would be impossible without the work of countless scientists (and others) throughout the world. Where possible I do my best to credit them, but there will always be many more who remain unmentioned; this does not imply I am ungrateful for their contributions. Any errors or inaccuracies are, of course, my own.